MATHS

VIRTUAL MATHS GAMES DAY

On Tuesday 12 October, 85 McKinnon students participated in a Virtual Maths Games Day run by the Maths Association of Victoria and ThinkSquare. The event took place on Zoom and Google Meets and the students competed in teams of four to solve problems, play Maths games and complete mind-boggling puzzles. 

There were around 250 students involved statewide from Years 7/8 and Years 9/10, and the McKinnon teams really dominated and had some fantastic results! 

In Years 7/8, 3rd place was Team L: Mia Bronson, Esha Gaind, Sally Hu and Julia Si;

In Years 9/10, 3rd place was Team B: Sofia Atchison, Prathi Kampli, Isha Raman and Elinor Roif;

And Years 9/10 Team D won the day coming in first place, congratulations to Aaron Baker, Azam Chelakkadan, Katy Do and Ben Green.

The students really enjoyed being able to work together with their friends on some puzzles and games, particularly after another long stint of remote learning. Well done to all the students who took part, it was wonderful to see so many students excited about Maths! 

Emma Griffingham

Maths Teacher 

This year, I participated in the MAV (Virtual) Maths Games Day for the first time. The event was filled with many different puzzles relating to logic and maths, such as the “KenKen” (a puzzle similar to Sudoku but with a twist of arithmetics), miscellaneous problem solving questions and maths games like “Mathematic-tac-toe” (tic-tac-toe but you use numbers and win by getting a total of 15 in a row) and “Tumbling Towers”. 

I personally really enjoyed playing “Mathematic-tac toe” because it extended me to think more logically and mathematically while still being super entertaining and fun at the same time. The best moment of the day though, was when my team was solving this huge puzzle called a “Sudo-Clue”. We all worked really hard then in cooperation with one another to try to figure out how to use all of the clues we had to solve the puzzle. It was a moment of both tension and excitement. In the end, just before the time ran out, we did finally manage to find the solution. 

Looking back, I think that the day was challenging but extremely fun and was overall an absolute blast!!

Katy Do

Year 9A

The Years 7 and 8 competition had 4 rounds of activities. In the first round, we had to complete 8 puzzles/problems. In the second round we had to complete 23 problems that are based on all different topics. The third round consisted of 2 games with the first one being a fraction game and getting the fractions into order and the second game being tic tac toe with numbers. We had to add up the two highest scores from each team, for each game. 

Lastly, as a team, we had to complete a 4 by 4 grid and fill them in with the numbers from 1-16. However, it wasn’t so easy since there were 7 random clues and you had to get the numbers in the correct order. For all of the rounds, we had to complete a google form at the end so that Jessica from MAV could mark them. 

I was in a team with Caitlyn, Maddie and Siena. Our strategy for the problem solving puzzles and problems was to split the number of problems between the four of us so that we would have enough time to complete them all. After we had completed them, we would swap them and check each other's answers. We worked really well together and had a great time! 

Because of the way we worked together, my favourite puzzle was the last one, the “Sudo-Clue” puzzle where we had to solve the clues and place the number in the right box. This was my favourite because it was really challenging and allowed us to have multiple, enjoyable discussions! 

Overall, this day was really fun and kept us all entertained! It was challenging but we were able to overcome the challenges by working with others! Well done to all the teams that competed and the teams that placed! 

Thank you to Ms Griffingham, Miss Little and Ms Gill for your help during the day! 

Ariela Sack

Year 8J